WHAT IMPACT DID THE MINAMATA DISEASE HAVE ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND PEOPLE
above is a woman with the minamata disease The Minamata disease was caused by one of many chemical disasters. One that affected a whole population of people in Japan. If they didn’t have the disease they would know someone that had the disease or died from the disease. All to this dumped waste of mercury in the bay.
The Minamata disease affected 2,955 people, and 1,784 people have since died.Minamata disease is methyl mercury poisoning that was caused by a company run by the Chisso Corporation located in a small town in Japan, called Minamata, full of factories.
The symptoms were very severe.The Minamata disease caused numbness in the limbs and in the lips, difficulty moving hands, legs, feet, and head, there was all so known sight problems as well as problems hearing, sense and speech. In some mild and life threatening cases there have been symptoms like going crazy and having long laughing fits, collapsing into a coma and fatigue problems.An ultimate cure has still not been discovered 53 years later. Once the disease has spread through the nervous system there is no way to prevent the symptoms.
Not only were the humans affected but the environment was also harmed because of this disease. The local water was polluted and so crops died and this caused even more harm to the human race. Creatures living in the water or that drank the water had similar symptoms to the humans.
Over 27 tones of mercury was dumped into the bay over a 40 year time frame. So this was a slow killing affect. So over this time period people’s healths were decreasing. People were becoming week all because of this mercury waste.
(This is a map of where the chisso factory was and where the minamata catastrophy was held.)
WHAT IMPACT DID THE MINAMATA DISEASE HAVE ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND PEOPLE
The Minamata disease was caused by one of many chemical disasters. One that affected a whole population of people in Japan. If they didn’t have the disease they would know someone that had the disease or died from the disease. All to this dumped waste of mercury in the bay.
The Minamata disease affected 2,955 people, and 1,784 people have since died. Minamata disease is methyl mercury poisoning that was caused by a company run by the Chisso Corporation located in a small town in Japan, called Minamata, full of factories.
The symptoms were very severe. The Minamata disease caused numbness in the limbs and in the lips, difficulty moving hands, legs, feet, and head, there was all so known sight problems as well as problems hearing, sense and speech. In some mild and life threatening cases there have been symptoms like going crazy and having long laughing fits, collapsing into a coma and fatigue problems. An ultimate cure has still not been discovered 53 years later. Once the disease has spread through the nervous system there is no way to prevent the symptoms.
Not only were the humans affected but the environment was also harmed because of this disease. The local water was polluted and so crops died and this caused even more harm to the human race. Creatures living in the water or that drank the water had similar symptoms to the humans.
Over 27 tones of mercury was dumped into the bay over a 40 year time frame. So this was a slow killing affect. So over this time period people’s healths were decreasing. People were becoming week all because of this mercury waste.
(This is a map of where the chisso factory was and where the minamata catastrophy was held.)
chelsea Rodger
Bibliography
//http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata// ( only as a starting point )
http://www1.american.edu/TED/MINAMATA.HTM
http://www.symptoms101.com/med/archives/2005/05/minimata_diseas.php
http://www.minamata-tour.org/en/disease/symptom/index.html
links
8D minamata page
8D minamata Q3
8D minamata Q4
8D minamata Q5
8D minamata Q6